New Jersey was approved for the full six weeks of federal unemployment relief offered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, as the number of state jobless claims since March soars to 1.6 million people.

The aid comes out to $300 a week, which many New Jerseyans will see as a single lump sum – likely in October – Gov. Phil Murphy said, for a total of $1,800 in federal unemployment relief.

All told, the state labor department paid out $15.6 billion since sweeping shutdowns went into effect in mid-March to eliminate gatherings of people where the COVID-19 virus might spread. That led to the closure of restaurants, movie theaters, non-essential retailers, malls, casinos, and nail and hair salons, with those restrictions only gradually being lifted beginning in mid-June.

Most of the paid benefits were from the added $600 of federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance that was tacked onto weekly state benefits. But, that program expired in July and Congress has remained in a stalemate over a future iteration of a new relief bill.

The state labor department said that 1.4 million New Jerseyans have qualified for unemployment, of which 96 percent have gotten at least a single check. That still leaves roughly 56,000 New Jerseyans who have not gotten a single payment, even though they are eligible for jobless aid.

“New Jersey workers continue to struggle with the weight of unemployment and underemployment, and the accompanying financial worries of not having a job,” New Jersey Labor Commissioner Robert Asaro-Angelo said in a Thursday statement.

“The Labor Department staff knows the difficulties our customers are facing, so they work hard every day to resolve as many cases and answer as many questions as possible,” he added.

Asaro-Angelo cautioned that just a “fraction of unemployed individuals” who got the $600 a week will be getting this new FEMA aid, because of much more stringent requirements as to who qualifies.

That includes excluding anyone getting less than $100 a week, or whose job less does not stem directly from COVID-19.